French Island, island within the bay of Western Port, southern Victoria, Australia, southeast of Melbourne, 84 square miles (218 square km) in area. Named Ile de France by the French scientist and explorer Nicolas Baudin in the early 19th century, the island is low and marshy in the northwest, rising to wooded hills. Farming is carried out on the island, and there is some tourism. The island harbours many birds, koalas, and rat kangaroos (potoroos). Pop. (2001) statistical local area, 81.

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state of southeastern Australia, occupying a mountainous coastal region of the continent. Victoria is separated from New South Wales to the north by the Murray River for a length of about 1,065 miles (1,715 km) and by an additional boundary of some 110 miles (180 km) linking Cape Howe and the...

...west) by Mornington Peninsula. Phillip Island (40 square miles [100 square km]) lies at its entrance flanked by passages on the west and east, the latter, narrower one being bridged to the mainland. French Island (84 square miles [218 square km]) fills much of the bay’s interior. The discovery of large deposits of oil and natural gas off the Gippsland coast in the 1960s has led to the...